Living in Africa
I live in a little place called Nsoko, Swaziland or eSwatini (they recently changed the name)
Life here in Swaziland is quite different then the United States. I guess you would kind of guess that. But I’ll try to draw a mental picture for ya’ll.
Lets start with the road… The steering wheel is on the right side of the car, they drive on the left side of the road. So it’s all flip-flopped and confusing to me.
While riding down the road, on multiple occasions, I have looked up and mentally freaked out for a second because no one was “driving” the oncoming vehicle. Thankfully I’m slowly starting to get used to it.
There are also cows and goats everywhere. Its a normal thing for us to stop in the road because the cows have decided to take a stroll down the middle of it.
My Living Conditions
The place we are staying is a new building! My squad is the first squad to live here! That being said it isn’t complete yet, so the guys are in tents, but hopefully soon there room will be complete.
My room accommodates 21 girls, including me. I have learned to sleep with earplugs in, because everyone wakes up at different times and you can hear everything.
We do have bathrooms and only have to use squattypotties at ministry. Each bathroom (we have 2 the 3rd is under construction) consist of 3 toilets with curtains, and 3 showers.
We don’t have power so, no hot water but at least its an actual shower! Fun Fact: I have had 3 hot showers since being in Africa and they have been amazing!
With the whole no power thing we live by flashlight. It’s really not that bad until you forget where you put your light and you can’t find it because it’s dark.
Or your light dies while you are in the bathroom… or shower.. that is when it gets real fun.
WiFi:
First off it basically just doesn’t exist.
To get wifi we have to take a bus 15ish minutes down the road to a restaurant. There you buy an hour of wifi and sometimes it doesn’t even work.
It ends with lots of frustration for me personally.
Food:
Cause we all know I love my food:
Breakfast:
Every morning we get 2 boiled eggs and a scoop of plain ole oatmeal. Sometimes we have peanut butter and/or sugar to put in it. The first week was pretty rough because the oatmeal tasted like smoke.
It has gotten way better and I know look forward to my oatmeal every morning!
Lunch:
We get 2 Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Dinner:
Dinner is always good! It’s different every night. 2 Swazi ladies come and one of the teams on the squad help them cook. Sometimes we have Swazi meals but we also get American meals.
Ohh and at meal time we don’t have enough chairs for everyone to sit in one so, most of us just sit on the ground.
Weather:
It’s hot… and cold… and windy…but not, all at the same time.
I have survived a few of what I would like to call windstorms. They always bring in the cold the longest it has ever last was 2 days and then it gets hot again.
So far I have loved life here in Africa, the people, food, animals, and even the whole no power thing.
Until next time
Carrie Grace
